Memorial Day is officially the start of ice cream season in these parts. Last night, my sister Alissa joined Jeanine and I for our first frozen treats of the summer. Our favorite place is Kimball Farm where the ice cream is homemade. We were not the only ones who thought this was a good idea. The lines were 25 deep at each of the ten service windows!
Kyle has been working on a landscaping project to add an outdoor entertaining space to his home. He is replacing an old fountain and pond with a patio and grilling area and adding stair access to his front yard. I helped him with the latter this weekend.
The top step is cut from a slab of bluestone that I salvaged from the foyer floor of our original River House. The rest of the stairs are fabricated from pressure-treated, ground contact-rated lumber set on buried concrete supports and anchored to the existing retaining wall. It was fun working with Kyle again and we completed the work in fairly short order. Meanwhile, Jeanine and my sister Alissa planted a lovely arrangement of flowers in a large pot from our Mattison Drive home that now graces Kyle’s front door steps.
For the first time in the United States, a regulation amputee soccer match was played in a professional sports stadium. Nico’s New England Revolution amputee soccer team faced the New York Metros at Gillette Stadium. Off the field, Nico has worked tirelessly to elevate the popularity of his sport and worked with the Revolution management to make this event happen. On the field, he delivered two goals and an assist to help secure a 4-2 victory for his team.
The full match video with commentary can be viewed at the link below.
Photos I took can be found at following link.
Before the match, Nico met with Austin who he met through his work with the Bionic Project. Austin is this evening’s honorary captain for the Revolution and will be on the field to flip the coin at the start of the match. I predict that Austin will become a future amputee soccer star and I told him that Nico was about the same age when he started playing.
Nico and US National teammates Jovan and Kavi give a great perspective on the US amputee soccer program in the pre-game interview shown below.
Maya and Owen are in Toronto for the weekend to attend the wedding of Owen’s cousin. They are pictured in front of Lake Simcoe, just north of the city.
On the home front, I replaced the 4×4 supports for our gong and installed it in our front yard atop a tree stump. I had to use a bunch of rocks to level the base and will probably want to revisit this with a more permanent solution.
Jeanine and I have thus far been unable to agree on pendant light fixtures for the kitchen island or the light over the dining room table. Today, we made another attempt to find something we could both be happy with. While taking measurements for the pendant fixtures, I noticed that the spacing of the ceiling boxes did not look right. When I checked their location against my plan (image above – the three large circles) I confirmed that they were properly centered but 16 inches farther apart than intended. It is impossible to build an entire house without making a mistake. Because I was on site every day I caught sub-contractor mistakes immediately. Corrections were easy when identified early. In this case, I was the one who installed the ceiling boxes and the mistake was mine. I placed the outside two ceiling boxes exactly one stud spacing further apart and did not catch my error until today. In the worst case, I will have to relocate the ceiling boxes. That will require plaster work and repainting. Not the end of the world but a real PITA now that we are living in the house. Alternatively, we could consider different lighting options that do not depend on the ceiling box placement. I will post our solution when we have agreed on one. MORALE OF THE STORY: Measure twice, cut once.
I decided to make a change to the electric meter pedestal surround I built a few weeks ago. The original roof was flat-topped. In retrospect, I should have used a sloped roof to provide drainage. I matched the new roof slope to that of the house and garage and added a slab of bluestone to the top for a very robust and water impermeable solution.
Our yard has several mature rhododendrons which have just started to bloom. So far we have pink ones, red ones, and white ones. With the warm weather forecasted, I am guessing all will have fully bloomed by the end of the week.
The stretch of the Sudbury River that passes our house is designated a Wild and Scenic River of Massachusetts. It is a favorite of kayakers, canoers, and paddleboarders who are drawn to the peaceful and nature-laden shores. Fishermen also ply the river and often arrive in small boats powered by electric motors or small gas outboards. Occasionally, we see recreational boaters who prefer going fast above all else. While they have every right to enjoy the river along with all others, I fear that one day there will be a collision between fast and slow. I am trying to determine if there is a speed limit for his part of the river. I remember reading somewhere that there is a no-wake rule and in another that the limit is 10 mph. If a limit exists, the next step would be to post it. Bridges across the river would offer the perfect place to do so.
A few years ago my website was infected with malicious software that inserted text and links for ED drugs into every single one of my nearly 9,000 posts. These only appeared when using the search function. This weekend I started the insanely tedious task of removing them from every entry. I was able to cleanse 5 years’ worth and expect it will take several weeks to complete the task.
On the soccer pitch, I pulled my right hamstring while stretching for a toe-poke goal after stealing the ball from the defense. I suffered the injury in the first ten minutes and will likely be out for a couple of weeks. The worst part is that we won the game 11-0 so there was no need for me to make such an effort. By the second half, we were down to 10 players so I went back on the pitch and played as a “cone” (target for the occasional wall pass, no running whatsoever).
Jeanine spent the afternoon with Maya and her niece Rachel for a belated Mother’s Day celebration. They toured the Arnold Arboretum, a 281-acre preserve designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the heart of Boston, one of the world’s most comprehensive and best-documented collections of temperate woody plants, with a particular focus on the floras of eastern North America and eastern Asia.
We enjoyed a visit from my cousin Gina, her husband, Vincent, and their son, Vinny this evening. They are in town for the graduation of her grandson, JD, from Boston College. Jeanine prepared a 5-course dinner to celebrate the occasion. Avid travelers, we heard wonderful stories about their recent exploits as well as learning something new about my father. Apparently, his family considered him a confirmed bachelor. It was not until he met my mother in his mid-thirties did he meet his match. The rest, they say, is history.
The clover we planted on our south lawn is starting to come in now. Hopefully, the tracks from the broadcast seed spreader will fill in over time. Growing conditions have been excellent and we are enjoying the changes we observe every day. Not visible in the photo but also starting to show up is the no-mow fescue that is also planted in this area.
I spent a good portion of the day working in the yard. While using an electric pole saw, I cut off a large and heavy limb which clipped my arm on the way down. Fortunately, it only resulted in a minor cut and abrasion although the impact hurt like hell. I post images like this to remind myself not to be stupid. Children, please take note. Please learn from the stupidity of your father.
It is hard to fathom, but today marks 19 years of making daily entries to this blog. That is 6,935 days and 8,943 posts (in the early days, every photo was treated as a separate entry by the hosting software). To be certain, it has been a major commitment of time and energy. Each entry takes 15-20 minutes if you consider both the photography and the writing. Even so, I do not regret the investment and feel I have created something of enduring value for our family. One day, I will feed the blog into an AI book generator and see what comes out on the other end.